“Go Skate!” program launched by Rangers

Team Celebrates Launch of “Go Skate!” with Second Annual “Hockey Weekend in New York” from Feb. 17-20

New York – The New York Rangers announced today the launch of a new youth hockey platform – “Go Skate! Playing is the Goal” – that will focus on improving the youth hockey experience in the tri-state by increasing opportunities and accessibility to the sport through hockey camps, clinics and free skating events. “Go Skate!” establishes a unified platform for the Rangers to continue their longstanding commitment to growing the sport of hockey. Last season alone, the organization held over 250 community events in the tri-state, giving more than 10,000 youth the opportunity to experience hockey.

Serving as the spokesperson for this new initiative, Rangers captain Ryan Callahan will help introduce the “Go Skate!” program through a PSA that will begin airing on February 19. “Growing up in Rochester I was fortunate to have youth hockey programs to help get me involved in the game,” said Callahan. “I am proud to now be involved in the Rangers ‘Go Skate’ initiative. It’s great to be a part of an organization that realizes the importance of making these same types of programs available to youth and that has a dedication to helping grow the game of hockey.”

On Saturday, to celebrate the launch of “Go Skate!,” the Rangers hosted a free clinic led by Rangers alumni Adam Graves and Dan Blackburn for 200 children from Playland Ice Casino and the Garden of Dreams Foundation “Power Players” program at the MSG Training Center. Rangers fans will then be invited to join in on the fun from February 17 – 20 when the team hosts the second annual “Hockey Weekend in New York,” a series of special events and complimentary hockey programs throughout New York in support of USA Hockey’s annual “Hockey Weekend Across America.” The City of New York will show its support by providing an official proclamation from Mayor Bloomberg that will declare those days “Hockey Weekend in New York.”

“The Rangers organization is committed to helping build the next generation of hockey fans and players. Through our ‘Go Skate!’ platform we will increase accessibility to the sport by offering youth throughout the tri-state a variety of events, including hockey camps, clinics and programs, that give them an opportunity they might not otherwise have: to pick up a stick and try the exciting sport of hockey,” said Howard Jacobs, executive vice president of marketing and sales, MSG Sports.

Over the next year, the Rangers expect to reach more than 15,000 youth through the “Go Skate!” platform, which consists of programs for all ages and abilities, including Future Rangers (introductory hockey, ages 3-10), Youth Street Hockey (introductory hockey, ages 7-14), Pee Wee Rangers (elite level, ages 11-12) and more. “Go Skate!” will also provide additional support to Ice Hockey in Harlem and Rangers Sled Hockey program, as well as assistance through equipment donations and free camps and clinics at the team’s more than 40 community rink partners across the tri-state area. For more information on “Go Skate!,” including program schedules and locations, along with videos and photo galleries that highlight the various programs and partnerships, fans can visit the enhanced youth hockey section on the Rangers website at NewYorkRangers.com/GoSkate.

Below is a full list of activities to celebrate the launch of “Go Skate!” and “Hockey Weekend in New York.”

WHAT: The Rangers will host free public skating along with learn to skate and learn to play hockey lessons throughout the day. Rangers alumni will sign autographs and take pictures with fans, and everyone in attendance will have a chance to win Rangers tickets and autographed memorabilia. NBC Sports Group will broadcast live from Trump Rink from 12pm – 9pm to celebrate “Hockey Day in America.” Fans wearing Rangers gear will gain free admission to Trump Rink to participate in the festivities.

I was also going to make that prediction, “before they get a sniff of the playoffs” but thought I’d ease up a bit. Because with the new realignment coming, the Islanders might not make the playoffs for the next decade.

I’d really like for Quebec to get a team – similarly to Winnipeg, the support and passion were never the issue. Plus the games against Montreal would be a must watch. On the same note, I wish they’d inherit a franchise with more stability and promise than the Islandorks.

Yeah, those Habs-Nordiques games were wars! I always enjoyed seeing the games coming from Quebec – Rangers had their problems up there, if I’m remembering things correctly, even though Quebec didn’t really have great teams…

Tavares is nuts good. 5-on-3 and their plan is still to just have him do it all. I guess Brent Thompson just told them to get the luck to Tavares in the right slot. That’s the plan guys. He’s got it. Top shelf.

Very belated, and rare, my bad….I was so busy and out of loop informed, I never would have taken any small pleasure out of the Klarksson injury, well….anyway, if I’d realized it was that piece of carcillo hartneller Cooke…..his rehab program must have a really low success rate…

Mdz for O’reilly straight up I would do in a heartbeat. MDZ plus another player and a pick is way too much. I bet Sather makes this deal for MDZ, and a number 2 next year for O’Reilly in the next two weeks.

I get that O’Reilly is a good player who would seemingly fit the system blah blah blah but what line would he play on? 3rd? You’re not dropping Stepan who is producing and knows the system for a new guy equally young.

Ah, Just back from a semi-cosy little dinner, delightful filet mignon with just the body heat restored, asparagus Henri, diced Juliennes, and two glasses of
Chateau-Lafite Rothschild. Nice conversation with no hockey allowed (grr!) and I come home to see here that someone, somewhere, is coveting our fine young Italian defenseman. Hmm.

So the Avs are going to take a D that according to some has pretty much already reached his modest ceiling and a potentially low 2nd round pick for a player that’s trending favorably as at least a 2nd line center?

Scallops cooked in butter and a 5 bottles of a delicious buttery chard…lobster bisque…..spinach salad…. Followed by some ribeye steaks and Cab wine….Desert – Carmel chocolate cake and a killer tawny port….. I love napa…..

I have a nice wine buzz….tomorrow brunch / fruit cheese / omlets and all the champagne you can drink – they have no idea bow bad a hit their button line is going to take …..we all be thirsty thirsty lord have mercy

The only guy I think this team needs is Zenon Konopka. He’s cheap and good at face offs and a pest and can fight and can grind and can score a tiny bit. And surprise. Guess what team he’s on. If only Rupp got us Konopka!

Konopka was an off season acquisition by the Wild at 2 years and $925K. Can’t remember if that is actual money or average cap hit. At any rate it’s cheap as heck. So cheap it’s less than Powe. Less than Halpern. Way less than Rupp.

Oh, that’s right, iManny! I remember that now! Well, Minny has *RUPP* now, so they really don’t need Konopka – after all, *Rupper* is a tough SOB and he can handle anything that might happen out there in the Land of Lakes!!

Our team without DelZ simply does not score. He’s still a kid, and top 4 (or any good) defensemen are more difficult to find than forwards. I say give Michael DelZ a chance to develop with the Rangers. Don’t forget he was pushed into the lineup before he had a chance to play much with Hartford, and Dmen take time to mature at this level. I don’t think Sather will go for this deal, even though its tempting him.

Let’s Hope Larry Brooks doesn’t have some inside dirt on Rick Nash’s maintenance day off possibly being related to a high hit he received in the Boston game from our worst nightmare Milan Lucic. If Nash is out for any extended period of time, Goodnight Rangers. ( see Brooks column in the post).

More Sunday morning comments from Papa Bears Kitchen…..I will say it again, John Tavares reminds me of Sydney Crosby, except he doesn’t appear to have the crybaby gene that Sydney has. That kid is a fantastic hockey player who is going to be thorn in our side for years to come.

Might as well go for 5. After I gave Stralman most improved player award during Boston game, he proceeded to have his worst game of the season Friday against the Islanders. My son calls it the reverse Daddy Boy Jinx. Happens a lot.

Your last comment where you essentially endorse Sather’s 13 year reign of error speaks nay shouts at your complete lack of perspective with regard to this organization’s inability to construct a franchise with any degree od continuity.

Are you seriously disputing that Sather is one of the least respected GM’s in the NHL?

Were you an owner would you have tolerated 13 years of wasted millions with nothing to show for it? MSG is interested in product not performance because they know their audience,including the area writers!

As for the personnel comparisons between the Islanders and the Rangers,I’d be happy to review same without burdening the board with our opinions.

You have my email,go for it! PS, think Matt Moulson might make the Ranger line,how about Mark Streit since the Rangers have no QB on their awful PP?

For every million Sather wasted Jimmy D made three back. Jimmy D cares nothing about the team but the profit. And i believe that Jimmy D haven’t had a year in minus, profit wise, just because the Rangers or the Knicks performed poorly.

Cmnsense, I didn’t endorse Sather … and if you think I have over the years, then you sure haven’t been paying attention. I’m saying with the people he has in place now, including the guy the Islanders passed over, the Rangers’ front office is far more capable than the Islanders’, which has pretty much wasted most of those high draft picks.

I will tell you, the Rangers would not trade any of the mentioned forwards for Matt Moulson (who is a product of Tavares just as P.A. Parenteau was), nor would they trade any of their top four D-men for Streit (even if you threw in Strait).

Carp, your opinion is duly noted but disagreed with. Is Stamkos a product of Vinny or St.Louis? Who on this roster is a “product” of Richards? How’s that working out when the 7mm. man starts his first two seasons playing like an aging fading star from another org. courtesy of Slappy? Good investment?

I believe you seriously underestimate the Islanders current and future prospects.

One wonders why your poll seems to believe almost as many fans do not expect the Rangers to make the playoffs as those who do?

Banish the bum to Banff! 72 and 1, at what point does one conclude that the fish does rot from the head?

Look, it is hard to support Sather despite the fact that we are probably closer now than at any other time in his unproductive tenure.

1. no championship despite having oodles of money. How many years??
2. NYR has been, over his tenure, a dumping ground for old, stale, and overpriced FA’s, a number of whom were absolute busts.
3. awful drafting, until he got help. Now it is ok, but we are still really thin down below. Look towards other teams and the support they have in the minors. We are below average.
4. Why should a team, to prop up it’s GM, have to spend $$$$$$ on the support people needed because of his flaws and lack of ability??? I mean really, since he can’t draft, we bring in administrative help, etc.

15 candles. Sunday morning; praise the dawning. eddie’s wine is like velvet. Underground. Game’s at 3, Napa time. $135 cheapest Stubhub seat? No wonder it’s so quiet in MSG. Investment bankers tend to play it close to the vest.

It’s gonna be interesting to see what JD does in Columbus as a great hockey person, with one of the worst organizations in the sport. He has brought in a relative unknown, non-high impact GM that KNOWS the CURRENT game. He drafts well, which, as Lou can tell you, is the foundation of being a good GM.

I could be wrong, but 4-5 years from now, JD could have that ship turned around.

Sather should’ve been let go right after he traded Leetch. They’ve been going in the right direction after 2005. Whether it’s Sather who gets a credit, doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t change anything at the moment.

Manny, actually he may have done well this year, Sather. Nash is the real deal. He gave up players, but this guy is bonafide. Problem is, the list of failures, I won’t go into, over the years. That coupled with weak drafting for years and you have a thin organization.

He has made some good administrative moves of late which have made up for his many blaring and outdated weaknesses. He has some good people working under him that know hockey. Sad that he has to have others do work that he should be doing himself. He’s costing Dolan unnecessary money.

He DOES drive a hard bargain, to his credit. We, at least, usually don’t overpay in trades. For FA’s, he has had an open checkbook. He has, IMHO, made some mistakes. Just a few.

Absolutely, Carpy. You gotta have a better eye as Gord Clark or Sather. But, at least, with Clark, some of these guys are making the big leagues! The trash Sather drafted, albeit with average picks, was not too functional.

To answer, it has probably been 15 years or so. Back to Smith, I guess.

Did you see the draft picks the new Columbus GM, Kekalainen, is responsible for?

“In his first three drafts, the Senators selected defensemen Bryan Berard and Chris Phillips and forward Marian Hossa in the first round. They also found defenseman Sami Salo in the ninth round in 1996. In 1998, they snagged Mike Fisher in the second round and Chris Neil in the sixth, and the 1999 draft produced first-round pick Martin Havlat and Chris Kelly, a third-round choice.

In 2000 Kekalainen landed Anton Volchenkov in the first round and Antoine Vermette in the second. In 2001, the headline choice was center Jason Spezza, but in the fourth round Kekalainen found goalie Ray Emery, who was the starter on the Cup team, and defenseman Christoph Schubert. The Senators also chose Brooks Laich in the sixth round that year.

Kekalainen moved to the St. Louis Blues in 2002, and in the next eight years as a scout and assistant general manager, he oversaw drafts that placed seven players on the team that finished second in the Western Conference last season: David Backes, Roman Polak, Ryan Reaves, T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund, David Perron and Alex Pietrangelo.”

Just a tad more serious players than Sather. Actually, you can pit most GM’s up against his record and see the same. However, he did win the cup in…..1980? or so???

Sather is like Jack Welch of GE. Zero handicap, but the money kept rolling in. They say if you shoot over 90 you have no business on the golf course, and if you shoot under 80, you have no business. Sather and Welch seem to be exceptions.

Carp, Re: your comment about what you perceive as the “not rosy picture for the Islanders and the absurd comment about Moulson( three consecutive years with 30+ gls. per.) In addition to those two,I believe that Okposo and Grabner might find a spot on our not so great 3-4 lines.

As to prospects, deHaan,Neiderreitter,Reinhart and Strome along with recent prospects like Joensu,Ullstrom,Hamonic and McDonald might be better than the Bickels,Emmingers and other stiffs and smurfs “whaling” away on the farm. Is McIllrath still playing hockey?

Comn, I like Moulson. I’d take him. I just don’t think the Rangers would trade any of the long-ago mentioned forwards for him. Not one of them. Okposo and Grabner, once upon a time, I thought were promising. Now they’re third-liners. Neiderreiter doesn’t want to be there anymore. I like Hamonic, but the Rangers wouldn’t give up any of their top four for him.

I think maybe I should link you to an Islanders’ blog where you can talk to other fans. Oh, wait, they don’t have any fans. :)